


Popping the Bubble

by HerbertBest



Category: Game Grumps, Good Game (TV 2017), Ninja Sex Party (Band)
Genre: Abortion Jokes, Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Commitment, Fatherhood, Friendship, Growing Up, Inverted Vs, M/M, Morning Sickness, Mpreg, One orgy in a star field with an alien sex god and everyone's paying, Polyamory, Polyfidelity, Pregnancy, Support, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 04:27:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15162653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/pseuds/HerbertBest
Summary: Danny Sexbang has everything he could ever want. Two boyfriends from two different dimensions and a life roaming the galaxy on a pleasure cruise.But that all changes one night.  Now, with two children on the way, he must figure out how to grow up and be there for both of the men in his life - while Alex goes into an ecstatic fervor of baby planning, Dan's reaction is far more subdued.  Can Danny figure out a way for all three of them to be happy, and bring both babies safely into the world?





	Popping the Bubble

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chips_and_Ice_Cream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chips_and_Ice_Cream/gifts).



Danny Sexbang could not have been happier.

He couldn’t think of anyone who was as lucky as he was. He had two lovers, one spaceship, a vicious ninja for a best friend and two mansions, including one on the moon. He could come and go in time and space whenever he pleased. He could make cookies at midnight and eat them in Hell with the Devil. His life was singularly peculiar, a gift from on high that made no sense even to him as he lived it, but it was so much fun, so cool. He was everything he hadn’t been in his awkward, nerdy youth.

There were cracks around the edges of his life, of course: the lack of money, the lies he told, the rampant amorality. It wasn’t as if he was a cheater; he believed in the truth, and the truth allowed to have as much fun as he could handle. And if all of his lovers looked exactly like him, sometimes acted like him, it didn’t matter. He made them happy, they made him happy, and he left it at that.

He should’ve seen the black cloud on the horizon prepared to rain on his parade. But then he wouldn’t have been Danny Sexbang: feckless, cheerful, good natured – made of love, for love.

*** 

Dan Avidan had never really been normal. Not even when he was a little kid dreaming of being a rock singer, alone in his little house in Jersey, had he really felt normal. Driven as a nail hit by a hammer, he was finally reaping the success he’d always wanted. He was rich, famous, and had his family’s respect. Life didn’t get better than that.

But there was a secret lurking in his closet, one he desperately didn’t want to get out. Years ago, a spaceman came to him – not through a drug trip, but in the flesh, a twin not by birth. He didn’t want to explain that Danny Sexbang was real, not an elaborate narcissistic fantasy, amasturbatory version of Peter Pan, who appeared at his window, slept with him, and disappeared into the night, again and again. Danny loved him, but not enough to stay. What a karmic twist on the messes he often bumbled into with women.

Luckily, it was a conundrum he didn’t have to address, as long as he had Danny at his beck and call, and he didn’t have to explain it to anybody. 

Now if only his stomach would settle, he could really enjoy things.

*** 

The second Alex Taylor emerged from the doctor’s office into the waiting room, Ryland leapt to his feet. “So what did the doctor say?” 

Ryland was anxious, which Alex found surprising. He often thought Alex was acting like a hypochondriac whenever he said he felt sick. Alex was the nurturing one, the one who made soup and coddled Ryland with blankets and cuddles when he was ill. “Promise that no matter what I tell you, you’ll believe me?”

Ryland’s eyes widened and took on a sheen of alarm. “Oh my God, it’s cancer.”

“Ry, it’s not cancer,” said Alex, a great wave of serenity washing over him. The strip mall doctor they’d gone to at Lorenzo’s insistence was all they could afford, but he didn’t want to make a scene in the waiting room. He had to break the news to Ryland somewhere more private, like the soft serve shop next door.

“So it’s worse? Super cancer? Dragon flu? Double AIDS?” Ryland’s panic and his pitched increased with every step they took.

“Come on, stop,” Alex said. With a glimmer of happiness in his eyes, he pulled open the door to Yogurt Park. “I’m going to have a baby.”

“What? You’re fucking… that’s not even…How?!” Ryland yelped, startling the families around them who were just peacefully trying to live their lives. Alex realized he would be like them soon, and his heart did a merry dance at the idea.

Alex shrugged. “Danny’s alien space jizz isn’t normal. That last orgy we had, on the ship… He said it could do something to us.” He ordered a vanilla cone dipped in gummy bears for himself, while Ryland managed to order a big chocolate cone dipped in strawberry chocolate.

“So… you’re really knocked up?” Ryland frowned. “How’s it even going to come out? Are you going to shit a baby in nine months?”

Alex wrapped protective arms around himself. “I’m not going to shit out my little Eustace or Epiphany!” Ryland blinked at Alex as he relaxed into a big smile. “But yes, I’m 100% knocked up, just like the movie.” 

He rubbed his flat stomach and felt an almost serene expression. “I’m going to be the best dad in the world.”

They sat down with their cones and Ryland looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know how to tell you this, man, but I don’t know if you’re ready for a baby. You’re not exactly the most responsible person when it comes to like… dependants. You killed an aquarium of sea monkeys.”

“Ryland!” Alex gasped. “I told you those sea monkeys were stricken with a plague!”

“They died because you overfed them,” Ryland said patiently.

“They hated the Dexter finale and couldn’t go on, Ry. Who could blame them?” Alex replied, unnecessarily grave. “It was a tragedy and I won’t have you speaking ill of the dead.” 

Ryland sucked down more of his cone, eyeballing Alex. “Seriously, dude. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“Of course,” Alex said breezily. “After we finish eating, we have to go to the pharmacy. I have to pick up some anti-nausea medication and vitamins. Do you mind if we get some fresh vegetables on the way home? I need to start eating well. I’m craving a salad.”

“Yeah, sure, alright.” Ryland already seemed overwhelmed, and was looking pointedly at Alex’s cone.

But Alex was lost in his own personal fairytale. Finally, someone would love him without strings attached. Finally, he’d have someone in his life who would want him, remember him. Someone who wouldn’t leave him. 

He touched his abdomen again, fingers under the hem of his shirt. His life was going to be beautiful from here on out.

*** 

Dan knew something worse than his usual stomach problems had taken hold when he started throwing up every morning. The doctor ordered a CT scan and ran a blood panel, and a pregnancy test for good measure. The guy was Arin’s doctor, and good at keeping things private. 

He fiddled with his phone and wrote lyrics involving Danny Sexbang getting a colonoscopy to pass the time. He was rhyming ‘perineum’ with ‘millennium’ when the doctor knocked on the door and returned, test results in hand.

“Well. This is something I don’t see every day.” The doctor smiled broadly, showing him the printout. “Congratulations, daddy.”

Dan blinked and blinked at the results. There it was in black and white. 

A positive pregnancy test.

“I’ll be prescribing you pills to deal with your nausea, and vitamins. Mr. Hanson explained the delicacy of your social situation, so there shouldn’t be any problems at the pharmacist.”

Some corner of Dan’s brain found this hilarious; it sounded like Arin was part of some sort of secret agency, tasked with managing his pregnancy. He was otherwise numb and silent, before a wave of nausea overcame him. “Doc, I’m gonna…” 

The doctor sighed and picked the trash up from the floor. Dan wrinkled his nose at the way the bile coated his tongue after he expelled it. 

“Please try to take it easy,” the doctor said. “The morning sickness should pass with time, although you may be missing it by the time your feet are swollen and you can’t fit through doors.”

The only thought in the back of Dan’s mind, echoing again and again, was that he was supposed to go on tour next month. How the hell could he be pregnant and famous at the same time?

*** 

Danny had to knock twice on Dan’s window before he got an answer. A bright smile lit up his face, and he thrust forward a candy bar. “Hello, my little hothouse flower. I’m here for our d–” 

He stopped short at the blotchy, angry face that greeted him. “Woah. Are you on your period or something?”

Dan glared at him. “No, actually. That’s the problem.”

Danny looked nonplussed. “I don’t follow.”

“We need to talk.”

“Talk? We never talk, especially when you’ve got your mouth full…”

“Talk. Now.” 

Danny blinked. He’d never been addressed that way by Dan, who was so laid back he might as well be horizontal, always taking the challenges life presented to him and rolled with the punches. This must have been serious.

He floated through the window and sat down beside Dan. “So, what’s up?”

“I’m pregnant,” Dan said flatly.

Danny blinked at him. “Bullshit you are.”

Dan slapped the piece of paper on the bed in front of him. “I’m so fucking pregnant that I’m on a dozen fucking pills for it.”

Danny got up to pace. “How? We didn’t even do anything that could… And you don’t have…” He made a hand gesture that Dan couldn’t describe, but seemed rather explicit. 

“You’re like an alien sex ninja from another dimension,” Dan said wearily. “Life finds a way.”

“Jurassic Park. Sick.” Danny’s high five was left hanging as Dan was curled into a ball, resting his head against his knees.

“Babe, don’t cry,” Danny pleaded. Of all of the things he hated in this world, he hated crying most of all. Dan only sobbed harder, until Danny wrapped his long arms around his body. “What do you need?”

“I don’t…” Dan began.

“You don’t what?”

“I don’t know if I want to be pregnant. I don’t know if I want to do this alone.”

That gave Danny pause. He leaned back and peered over at Dan, really looked at him and considered what he was saying. “Why not?”

“My career is finally taking off, and I’m always on the move. We’re recording a new album in two weeks, and I’m going on tour in two months. I won’t be showing by then, but I have a hard enough time keeping myself healthy. Now I have to take care of someone else?”

“But didn’t you say you hoped you could have a family someday?” Dan’s logic made no sense to Danny. The reality of his involvement – or non-involvement – if Dan kept the baby had yet to dawn on him. 

“Yes, someday. Not now,” Dan sniffed. 

Danny pulled a silk handkerchief out of his… well, pocket wasn’t entirely accurate, as he didn’t have any. Dan looked at it dubiously.

“It’s clean,” Danny said defensively. “You know how Ninja Brian loves hand-washing the delicates.”

Dan sighed and blew lustily. “I have to think about what I’m going to do. But if I keep it… will you promise not to run off?”

“Of course!” Danny could hear the squeaky panic in his own voice, making a liar out of him. 

Dan eyeballed him, confused. “You won’t just deadbeat dad on me?”

“No! Never! Listen, you’ve got a lot of thinking to do, and Brian has ballet practice.” Danny kissed Dan at the crown of his hair, allowing his curls to fan out around his miserable face. “I’ll be back!”

“But–”

“I’ll see you then! I promise! I love you!”

“You love everyone, Danny,” Dan muttered. As the tail lights of the Tyme Musheen sped by his window, he wished for the millionth time that he had created a persona that was less cavalier with his affection. 

*** 

Alex was waiting for Danny nervously, still wearing his COACH shirt from practice. He had the apartment to himself; Ryland had stepped out to moon over Ash and get a little rest at her place. 

Alex was glad that Ryland has agreed to give them their space. Meeting with Danny always made his heartrate pound like a drum, and his thoughts were dizzy and carefree, a balloon circling in the draft of a ceiling fan. 

When he saw the flash of the headlights of his ship, Alex flung himself in the direction of the front door and threw it open. “Hello!” he chirped. 

Danny blinked in surprise. He was a bouncing ball of energy most days, but nobody could beat him quite like Alex at his happiest. “Hi baby.”

Alex dragged him inside and served a glass of wine. He made a great show of pouring himself a glass of water before they settled on the couch. “How was your trip?” he asked. “How’s Ninja Brian?”

“Oh, he’s fine.” Danny swirled the wine around in the glass. That’s what people did with wine, wasn’t it? “You know Ninja Brian. Formulating new recipes to get bloodstains out of spandex and trying to catch throwing stars with his toes.”

“I was thinking we could go to the beach for the night,” Alex gushed. “There’s going to be a meteor shower! We can eat dinner picnic style…”

“I don’t know if I’m that hungry, babe”

Alex’s expression shifted into a frown. “But I have something important to tell you!” He was already holding up the picnic basket, waving it at Danny like it was a bag of dog treats to a puppy.

Danny gulped. “Right! Okay. Picnic. Love it. We should walk there.” Taking Tyme Musheen with them was not exactly subtle. 

“Aw, yeah! Let’s go!” 

*** 

The walk was very short – Alex knew how to get around LA quickly, spending so many hours driving ride-shares for spare cash that he could point himself anywhere he needed to go within seconds. He was almost skipping beside Danny, both turning emotional cartwheels but for different reasons. 

“You’re happy today, even for you.” Danny tried to keep his tone casual, but he sounded nervous. Alex had always been so heartbreakingly earnest with him, so hungry for love and approval. It was what made him a great lover, and tended to make him Danny’s favorite. But an Alex high on happiness was an Alex who had a secret – the last time it was the Killcore team, which Danny didn’t understand on a lot of levels. The games he was used to were all games from when he was a small starchild, using his fantasies to open the ways of perception. 

His life was so different now that he was older. He had everything, could do anything. And all he could think about when he realized that his potential was this grand was how neat everything was.

They made it to the beach and he spread the blue blanket gallantly out for Alex. Alex set out the meal, “ –there were a lot of vegetables, Danny noticed – and together they ate. 

When the stars began to fall he turned his face toward the sky and stared up into them. How beautiful it looked from Earth. He had no idea where he really belonged during moments like this – whether he should be the star that was falling or the person watching them rain down on the the atmosphere from below.

Alex grabbed for his hand. Danny smiled and leaned into his shoulder, squeezing back. He felt very small in the universe and all-encompassing at the same time. 

Alex’s breath stirred his chest hair. The sense of incomparable oneness Danny felt was beautiful, inexplicable and perfect. He tried to think of the right words to say, something that would make the moment perfect. 

But Alex was the one who spoke, blurting his words eagerly into the quiet. “I’m pregnant.”

And the beauty of the moment crashed in around Danny, burying him to the heart in panic. No, no, not him, too. “You’re what?”

“It was the orgy in the ship,” Alex said, pressing a hand below his navel. “I’m only a couple of months along.”

Danny had a sudden memory of Brian telling him to add more condoms to the bowl after they’d already emptied it that night. “Just this once, I’ll bareback them both to see what it feels like,” he’d said. But he hadn’t thought of the possibilities, or the consequences.

He suddenly felt very, very scared. 

“Isn’t it great?” he said. “Now you and me and Dan… we can be a family.”

“Wait, what about your video game thing?” Danny felt Alex seize him with those big, pleading hands of his – the ones so much like his own, veiny and oversized and gentle.

“Oh, I don’t mind leaving them behind for awhile. Ryland can take care of them. But the three of us can be a family forever.” He seemed to get more grasping, now that he saw Danny’s uncertainty. “I’m already taking more vitamins, I’m going to make sure that I make it to every doctor’s appointment – I’m going to take good care of this baby,” he said. 

“I…” Danny stood up, his legs shaking, “I have to go. For awhile,” he said softly. 

“What? Why?”

“I need to… I need some time to think about this. I’ll be in touch, okay?”

“But…” Alex’s eyes blurred with tears. 

Danny walked away – not walked, ran, as fast as his feet could carry him. “Love you!” 

When Alex could clear his eyes of tears, Danny had disappeared, leaving nothing but a scattering of stars behind him.

 

*** 

Ninja Brian looked like a disapproving mother as he stood in the doorway of the Time Musheen. Danny said nothing as they rode all the way back to the moon.

 _You fucked up,_ Brian signed when they landed.

“I know!” Danny said. “You don’t have to tell me, man.”

_I disagree. No one else is going to put a foot in your ass and make you do what you need to do._

“Thanks,” Danny pouted.

 _You’re going to be a dad,_ Brian reminded him. _You have a responsibility to take care of them – all of them._

“I don’t even know how to take care of me,” Danny whined.

 _I’m aware._ Brian stood up to depart the cockpit. _We’ve got work to do._

***

“If men could get pregnant and like, have abortions, do you think they’d go up through the butt?”

“Dude, what?” Arin blinked at Dan, as his avatar missed the jump he’d been trying to make. “Oh fucking God damn it, I was trying to hit up!”

“Great job, Ar,” snickered Dan. He was drinking a smoothie and watching the timer, resting against the cushions Arin had piled up high for him. They were on their last hour of filming and all he wanted to do was take another nap; the anti-nausea drugs were making him sleepy as hell. 

He was five months in and already roundly pregnant. He still had no idea how he felt about the person inside of him yet. Would they resent him for the weirdness of their existence? Would they have a loving, sweet relationship of the sort that he had with his own family? God, how the hell was he supposed to explain all of this to his grandmother? 

Shit, how would he explain this to Brian, who was undoubtedly going to be pissed off that he told Arin first – though Dan hadnt has much of a choice, and had “told” Arin by passing out a couple of sessions ago. 

Arin was forcing him to scale things back a little with the company, which Dan hated. It cried out against his natural sense of ambition. 

The communicator Danny had given him beeped on and off throughout the rest of the episode, but he set it on buzz, ignoring it. The vibrations helped his sore back, and he let out a soft sigh. At least he hadn’t thrown up yet today.

Tiny victories.

***

Alex was watching Sam try to level up. He was doing it while puking into a bucket, but he was proud of his ability to multitask. 

“Ugh, dude, that smells rank!” Sam complained when she got to close to his buckets.

“I can’t help that I’m a vessel full of baby love!” said Alex. He clung to the bucket the way he would the baby. 

Sam shoved at him with her elbow – not enough to poke at the rounding of his belly, just to make him jump away from her in alarm. “Whatever, please just get out of my face with it!”

“Keep leveling!” Alex demanded. “Strike high and hard!” His communicator beeped and he gasped, pulling it out of his pocket. 

“Is your baby-daddy calling?” Ash asked. She hadn’t looked up once from her monitor since they’d started playing.

“He calls him all the time. It’s fucking annoying,” Ryland grumbled. The two of them were trying to kill a barbarian who’d tried to muscle in on their quest.

“Be nice or shut up!” Alex snapped, then winced. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for,” he said. “I’m just trying to stay in contact with my boyfriend.”

“Who looks just like you,” Kamal said. “Which, I want to state for the record, is super fucking weird.”

“Super,” agreed Sam.

“I think it’s sweet,” Lorenzo said cheerily. “Finding your true love, and he looks exactly like you. You can share a whole wardrobe!”

But Alex wasn’t paying attention anymore. He was frantically texting Danny. “I have to go,” he said. “Ash, you’re in charge! I super believe in and love all of you!” He was already running out of the room, leaving his charges to gape at the trail he’d left behind.

“Wonder what‘s got him hot and bothered,” murmured Lorenzo.

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” said Kamal. “First person to the top of Mount Shit gets to hump the corpse of that goblin we just killed!”

They bent their heads over their controllers and began to furiously race each other toward the top.

*** 

Dan didn’t check the communicator for hours. He was finishing with dinner and sitting on his sofa with a notepad to write out his feelings when he finally noticed Danny’s pleading.

He shook his head at the wild, desperate cavalcade of words. “You get one more shot,” he said to his phone. Then he got up off of the couch and headed out to his backyard.

*** 

The ship was different than it had been before, during all of their dates. Quieter. It didn’t have the vibe of having stumbled into some kind of neon wonderland, as if Danny and Brian hadn’t been keeping up with its maintaince. When he rounded the corner into Danny’s private – and otherwise empty – quarters, he saw Alex and noticed how round his own stomach was. 

Dan groaned. “Of course. I should have known he’d fuck you over too?”

“He didn’t fuck me over,” Alex said, a little defensive. “Everything that happened between us was beautiful and consensual! You know that, you were there! Helping!”

“We had an orgy in a radioactive field,” Dan said. “We’re lucky we don’t have extra heads. Uh dude - if he doesn't want to be there for us, then I'll help out with - ” 

There was a sudden banging sound as Danny tripped his way into the room; he saw his two lovers in the same time at the same place since the orgy he’d thrown, and neither of them looked particularly pleased with him.

“I would like to open by saying that you both have every right to hate me,” he said.

Alex bit his lip and looked nervous, which didn’t put Danny at ease. “I don’t hate you. You said you needed time to think, so… what are you going to do?”

“I’m guessing you won’t be trading in your freedom to move around time and space for diaper changes and midnight feedings,” Dan said, more than a little scornful. “This is the part where he tells us about alien child support.”

He hated himself for ever yoking himself to someone so irresponsible, looking at Alex’s eyes, huge and hopeful as they took in Danny’s face. He wanted to grab the nearest space-taxi and hitch-hike back to Earth.

Danny’s expression was suddenly sharper, determined. “No,” he said. He squared his shoulders and stuck out his bottom jaw. “No, I’m going to be here. I know I suck at showing how much I – uh, what I mean is, that I’m kind of afraid of what the word really means and how much it might freak me out, but… I love you. I love you both, and I belong here with both of you. It’s not going to be easy, because I’m going to have to go between dimensions–”

“I’ll stay with you,” Alex said immediately, his belly bumping against the table as he stood abruptly and pressed his hands against the smooth cobalt surface. “Wherever you to go, I’ll go with you. Nothing at home is as important as being with you.”

Danny shook his head, and his features took on a noble cast. “No, babe. You have friends back home. You have the team. Didn’t you just tell me you were starting to look around for a songwriting partner?” 

Alex blushed and nodded. 

“See? You have a whole life that needs you. I’ll be there every single day to be with you–” He glanced at Alex’s belly, then Dan’s. “All of you. But I don’t want you to give up your whole life for me. I belong here with both of you, in each of your worlds, but I can’t interfere in the worlds you both love so much.” He held out both of his hands. “Can you forgive me? Will you let me be a part of the kids’ lives?”

“God, of course!” Alex said, surging over the table and they embraced for a few sweet moments.

Dan watched it all with a sour look. Danny turned toward him when he released his grip on Alex. “I love you, Dan. You know that I love you, don’t you?”

Dan tried to smile, but only the corner of his mouth wriggled. “Is that why you’re here?” The old words he’d used on Brian came unbidden off the tip of his tongue.

Danny knelt in front of him, and it made Dan feel a way he didn’t quite know how to name. “I’m here because I want to be with you. I always want to be with you.” 

Dan scoffed. “Sure. Except when you want to be with Alex, or some alien chick you met on Planet Playtex, or–”

Danny cupped Dan’s cheek. “I want to be with you,” he said, with all the sincerity he had.

“Oh.” In spite of himself, Dan was biting back tears. “I want to believe you. I really do. It’s just…” 

He looked deep into his heart, conjured up the man who had believed in unicorns and talked to fruit flies, the boy who wanted to go to Mars and talk to mermaids. When had his innocence, his trust and optimism, fallen away to reveal this bitter and mean side of himself? He felt almost ashamed of himself. He still couldn’t bring himself to hurt snails and he was prepared to shut Danny out, offer him no forgiveness or second chances.

He just couldn’t do it.

“Yeah, I love you, too, you idiot.” In spite of the difficulties, he did love Danny – the childlike demeanor, the open, hopeless sweetness, the passionate sexual chemistry. The dreamy romantic in him had fallen in love with this man, this twin from another side of the blanket of space time. And like two dreamers in love, they’d floated on the possibility of peace and joy – only to smack into the reality of a life that didn’t involve their own.

“Can you forgive me too? Even though I’m thoughtless and careless, and I fall in love really easily? I’m going to be there as much as I can, but sometimes there’ll be a space battle, or Alex will need me, or–”

Dan hushed him by pressing their faces together, forehead to forehead. Danny felt warm in his arms; like a pillow or a cozy chair. “Yes,” he said, one word that meant everything.

A great gush of air whooshed out of Danny’s lungs, and he hugged him tight. “Okay,” he said, almost chanting to himself. “Okay. Alright. This is good.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to do this.” Dan looked at Alex out of the corner of his eye. He seemed to be crying quiet tears of joy, the big marshmallow.

“Brian will help me put a schedule together!” said Danny. “I’ll try to be there all the time. I promise. I’ll come on tour with you and be there for all of Alex’s Killcore stuff. I’ll be at recitals and baseball practices and everything. I promise.” 

Alex looked at Dan. Dan stared back at him. Then he looked at Danny – so much like them, yet so different, and so completely vulnerable in the moment.

“Alright,” he said quietly. “We’ll be a family.”

They’d certainly try, anyway.

 

****

 

_Six Months Later_

 

*** 

 

“Come here, baby girl.” 

Danny was patting the sopping wet face of his daughter, and she was howling, utterly shrieking at him as if he’d committed some atrocity against humanity. “Alice, this is only your fourth bath and you’re gonna have a million before you’re my age. You’re gonna have to get used to it.” 

The only reply was sobbing, more welling eyes with crocodile tears. 

“No, no crying,” he begged. “You have to give me a couple of years before the emotional manipulation starts!”

She blinked at him, the moment broken, and he bent over her, a stuffed unicorn in his hand. The squeaker in it squeaked, and he laughed, which made her coo. Picking her gently up and pressing her to his chest, he spun her around until he was in front of her crib. There he left her to rest – hopefully.

“Thank you,” Dan said. His voice was soft and scratchy – he’d been up all night with the baby, all day recording songs and writing. But he couldn’t complain. Danny had been there. He’d even been on the tour with him, had tended to his needs. Even when Alex had needed him, there had been Arin and the rest of the family there to help him.

Danny kissed Dan’s lips, then smiled. “Thank you.” There was a buzz from his back pocket.

“Time to check on Alex?”

Danny nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Please get some sleep while she’s sleeping.”

Dan tried to understand it, when Alex needed Danny. Those were the rules. “I’ll give it the ol’ college try, Daddy.”

“Love you.”

“We love you too,” Dan said. He let Danny go with a smile.

 

*** 

 

“I think she’s smiling at me.”

Lorenzo hadn’t put Gigi down since the day she’d been born, at least as far as Alex could tell. But he was extremely happy for the extra help, which he’d be needing more often now that his band was starting to get gigs.

“That’s poop,” Ryland said. He didn’t seem particularly impressed with the baby, but he was as tired as Alex was; they’d both been working their hardest to make sure she was kept warm and dry while Danny was away.

“It is not,” Lorenzo huffed.

“She’s totally going to take a dump,” Ryland insisted. “Watch. I have it to a science.”

Before Gigi could prove him a liar or not, there was a flash of light and a knock at the door. 

Alex squealed and grabbed up the baby before rushed over to the door.

Danny was standing under the eaves, smiling. 

“Welcome home!” Alex practically shouted, and the baby shrieked with delight.

“It’s good to be home,” Danny said.

As they kissed over their daughter’s heads, Alex could taste Dan on Danny’s lips. And somehow, some way, it felt like home was everywhere at once.


End file.
